Grain Free Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

The other day, I saw a pumpkin cinnamon roll recipe posted on a mainstream blog. Oh how I love all things cinnamon roll- especially when you begin to introduce fall flavors. I have yet to see a grain free version that included pumpkin on the internet. That needed to change, and fast.

Due to the fact that these delicious buns are free of yeast they are REALLY fast and easy to make. They even bake quickly in the oven. The dough is easy to work with, rolls up really nice and the end result is a soft cinnamon roll that is much higher in protein and healthier than your average starchy junk bun. Their texture is a cross between a muffin and bread- this is a result of being yeast free.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a piece of parchment paper on your counter top and liberally oil it. Set aside.

In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients : Almond Flour, Starch, Baking Powder and Sugar. Set aside.

In a separate bowl combine the eggs, pumpkin puree, Oil, Cinnamon, Ginger, Salt, Psyllium and Flax Meal. Using a mixer, beat until the mixture becomes thick. (This will take about a minute).

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until it becomes a solid mass of dough (It will be a little bit sticky).

Place this glob of dough onto the oiled parchment paper. Coat your hands in additional oil to prevent sticking and press the dough into a 12 inch by 6 inch rectangle. It should be about an inch (maybe a little less) thick.

On top of the rectangle of dough drizzle and sprinkle the filling ingredients evenly across the surface (Oil, Sugar, Cinnamon and Ginger).

Use the parchment paper as your guide and roll the dough up. Once fully rolled make sure it is seam side down. Using a piece of dental floss cut the dough into 10- 1 inch wide rolls.

Select a small square baking pan or a 9 inch cake pan- drizzle about 2 tbs of oil in the bottom and sprinkle 2 tbs of sugar in. Place the cinnamon rolls into the pan side by side so that they are touching. Brush additional oil on to the tops of each roll.

Place in the oven and bake 26-30 minutes. (Pull out at 26 minutes if you like them a little extra moist!) About 20 minutes into the baking time, brush another layer of oil on the tops.

Remove from oven and place a sheet of tinfoil on the pan- keep covered as they cool. This will keep the dough soft.

Notes

Store the rolls at room temperature in a sealed container, or else they may dry out some.

For the sugar you may use Honey. Maple Syrup, Stevia or Powdered Sugar. If you do not want to use white powdered sugar feel free to make your own by throwing any variety of granulated sugar into a high power blender or into a coffee grinder.

If you would like your frosting a little bit thicker you have two options. 1) Add a little extra goat cheese if you enjoy the tart flavor. Or 2) Add a tiny pinch of xanthan or guar gum. Either gum works awesome at adding a little body to frosting recipes and thickening them. As long as you only use a tiny pinch, they will not affect the texture in a negative way.

Substitution Notes:

In the Cinnamon Roll Recipe I call for Granulated Sugar. This is vague (on purpose) Feel free to fill in the blank with your favorite unrefined granulated variety. If you opt for xylitol, be aware that it may effect the texture and make them extra chewy- I have not yet tested these buns using it.

I really don't recommend replacing the Almond Flour- Unless you have a high powered blender and are able to make another nut or seed flour that is FINELY GROUND. Coconut flour WILL NOT WORK.

If you are sensitive or allergic to flax meal- chia meal may work.

I do not have recommendations today for replacing the Psyllium Husk or Eggs.

Not interested in making Pumpkin Cream Cheese? OR would you like to send the indulgence meter sky high for these rolls? Try topping with both caramel AND pumpkin cream cheese.

Just replaced the Psyllium with extra flax and although the texture was good, but dough was really moist and didn’t roll or cut easily. I ended up with globs of (tasty) dough. I think the Psyllium would have held things together a bit easier. Still yummy though…

I modified these heavily to work with our diet (and what I had on hand), and made a double batch tonight. Thanks for giving me a (strong!) starting point! They were a huge hit with my family, and I bagged up the extras to freeze for quick breakfasts.

Hi Brittany, this is an awesome recipe! My mouth just waters as I am writing it down!! UGH! I had a quick question~ do you know if Sucanat or Palm sugar feed candida issues? I am not familiar with them, and I follow a pretty “no white stuff” way of eating. So, I wondered if I could make the caramel and use one of those in keeping with that. Thanks! Keep up the fabulous work. I have learned so much from you and I tell ALL my friends to check out your site

Hi!
Coconut palm sugar is the better option of the two! It’s lower glycemic. It all depends on what stage you are at with candida and how sensitive your body is. For me I have pretty bad systemic candida and any sugar at all makes my situation bad! I can’t even tolerate fruit or anything with anything more than ten carbs in one serving. But my situation may be more extreme than yours!
I do have friends with candida that do ok with palm sugar in moderation.

Made these today– so delicious! I started making them before I realized that I was out of psyllium. I saw some comments on here about possible substitutions, like extra flax meal, so I thought I would share what I did! I used an equal amount of chia seeds in place of the psyllium. The dough thickened with mixing and it rolled into a log very easily! The dough was a little on the moist side, but they turned out so beautifully! The whole family loved them! Thanks, Brittany

I made them for my Mom’s coffee group this morning and they were a HUGE hit among all the grain eater and non-grain eaters alike! I ran short on time, so instead of the icing, I just made a glaze out of vanilla almond milk and powder sugar and drizzled that on. So good! THANK YOU!!

Oops I posted this comment on the wrong recipe. I made these (not the gluten free ones) but used the ground up psyllium husk and they were not easy to roll out (in fact we really couldn’t). But they tasted amazingly wonderful. Do you think if I used the whole husks it would make the difference?
Jennifer in PA
The Entwife’s Journalhttp://www.visionherbs.tumblr.com

I figured that was what happened and answered on the other recipe Hehe.
Yes- the whole husk would have made a difference. Also, did you use enough oil to really prevent the dough from sticking? THat plays a huge role in making these turn out!

These look delish. I note that someone already asked you about subbing out the eggs to make it vegan, and you said to look in the recipe as you usually mention sub-outs. But in this particular one, you said you didn’t have a suggestion on the date of post. Checking in to see if you have further thoughts about it. I would love to make these but eggs are a no-go for me. Have been fooling around with Energ-G, with (very) mixed results. Thanks!

Let me start by saying – I am a cinnamon roll snob. I’m the 3rd generation that makes our family’s cinnamon rolls. I give them as gifts for Christmas – they are that amazing! So the dilemma this year for my Christmas baking is my youngest daughter is now gluten free. How could our family possibly be eating my cinnamon rolls, while my daughter has nothing! So I made this GF recipe and I have to say they are wonderful! My daughter loves them as do I. Thank you for sharing!

I just wanted to say that I made these for our yule cinnamon rolls(it is a long standing family tradition). I wish I could post a picture of them. They were great, not too sweet(very important to my husband), not too gooey(again very important to my husband). I subbed chia for the psylium since I didn’t have it. They turned out great, though I did bake them for 10 extra minutes since my husband is a gooaphobe.

If you want a real treat this recipe is amazing. They are a bit rich and sweet but thats exactly what we were looking for! This recipe is not for beginners! If you have some feel for baking it will probably help. BTY I substituted chia seed (ground in coffee grinder) for the flax meal, I also added raisins, A great addition if I do say so myself! : ) Yum

just made these and they are fantastic! they got done a little sooner than expected and the dough wasn’t soft at all! I topped it with pecans and I am in the works of making a coconut butter and maple glaze. the rolls came out after 20minutes and are beautiful! I did find that they were hard to roll but soooo worth it! they had started falling apart as I rolled them but they all mushtogether in the pan anyway. I also put some individually in a muffin tin and it worked out beautifully!

Not sure what we did I wrong, but our dough was very soft and sticky. I had hoped it would thicken as we flattened it, but it didn’t. We ended up with dough that didn’t cut very well and was very soft, almost falling apart when I was picking them up to put them in the pan As I write this they are baking, but I fear they will be lumps of dough once finished and not resemble rolls at all… Any suggestions what I may have done wrong???